


Anthony & Virginia

by Gingerness



Series: Pepperony Week 2017 [6]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Colors, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-12-02 05:26:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11502684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gingerness/pseuds/Gingerness
Summary: Everyone has a soulmate that needs to be found. You only know their name and their mood as well. Thanks to the tattoo on your body, the universe gives you a small insight in your soulmate’s life.





	1. Pepperony Week 2016

**Author's Note:**

> This has been a fanfic for Pepperony Week 2016: AU. At one point I will probably extend this idea, but for now, this is all I will write about it.

_Soulmates are something pure and beautiful. People who had the chance to find their soulmate, and keep them, they are said to be the luckiest people in the world. Despite all bad that happened around them. As long as they have their soulmate, knew things were good. That is unless their tattoo says otherwise. People have their soulmate's name tattooed on their body, somewhere they could see it, and by the change of its color they are able to tell their mood. It can be a blessing, but a torture as well._

Tony Stark was never one to truly believe in that soulmate thing. He knew he wasn't one for a serious relationship, so why would the universe be cruel enough to choose a poor soul to be his soulmate? The fact that all his life there had never appeared a name anywhere on his body just supported his opinion. He was supposed to be alone.

It was five months before he met his soulmate that Tony woke up with a neat, almost graceful, written name on his wrist. _Virginia_. He frowned, shocked and surprised at the same time. Why now? Why her? He didn't know anyone by that name, but he was sure he had to meet her sometime soon if the name was appeared on his wrist. It's current color was a dark blue and he wondered what it meant.

"JARVIS, which mood does the color blue represent?"

'The color blue, in a lighter variation means that a person is relaxed, enthusiastic, surprised or even flirtatious. In a darker variation it represents happiness, relaxation, joy and peace, Sir.'

Tony nodded thoughtfully. No matter what caused his _soulmate_ to feel this way, he would find out soon enough.

For the next five months, Tony did everything he could to hide the name on his wrist, always keeping it covered. When he was alone, he found himself staring at the name most of the time, enjoying to watch the change of color. He had seen almost all the variations, had seen her happy, afraid, surprised, excited and even sad. Though he had never seen her in person. It was almost depressing to watch her mood change every day but not being able to share it with her in person. He wanted to laugh.

Tony Stark wanting to meet his soulmate so desperately, it had to be a joke. The same man who had made fun of all the people who believed in soulmates, thinking they were hopeless and embarrassing was now one of them. He would die if someone found out. Until he had figured this whole situation out, he had to pretend.

Five months after the tattoo had shown itself, Tony was sitting in his office at Stark Industries. He was reading some files, which was unusual enough, when he heard shouts outside his office. "If you touch me one more time, I will use my pepper spray". He had to smile at that. Seconds later he saw Happy coming inside.

"Sir, there's a woman outside. She says it's important she talks to you, I told her that wasn't possible but she wouldn't leave."

"It's fine, let her in."

And a moment later, a beautiful redhead stepped inside his office, papers in her hand and a determined look on her face. Dismissing Happy, he looked at the woman, awaiting.

"Now, you need to talk to me. What is it, Miss....?"

Walking closer, the woman handed him the papers she had in hand, which he eyed for a moment, not taking them, before she simply let them fall down on his desk.

"Potts. Virginia Potts, from accounting. There's an error in your calculations."

Tony froze, looking at her in disbelief. Did she just say her name was Virginia? Like in his soulmate Virginia? No, this couldn't be. Just when he noticed he was staring at her, he turned his head towards the papers in front of him, taking them and checking them carefully.

She was right, there had been a mistake. He had made a mistake and didn't notice it.

"You're right." He said surprised, looking up at her again. "Miss Potts, are you happy in your job?"

Virginia didn't expect that question. What was he saying? "Of course, yes. I mean, I glad to be part of this company and– "

"What would you say about a change? Screw accounting, I'm offering to become my personal assistant."

That hit her hard. Virginia Pott, personal assistant of Anthony Edward Stark. It sounded surreal, but right at the same time. Eyes wide, mouth opened a bit, she looked at him in disbelief.

"I... That is... Yes."

She knew she would be able to handle such a job, even more if he trusted her enough to manage it.

"In that case, Pepper Potts, I'll see you tomorrow. Be there on time." That grin. Virginia was sure she wouldn't forget it anytime soon. Nodding, she turned to leave and just as the doors closed behind her again, she stopped.

Did he just call her _Pepper_?

* * *

  
It had been two years after her promotion that the name had appeared on her wrist. _Anthony_. She had prayed it wasn't her boss, the only man that was out of her reach. How was she supposed to be happy? So she kept hoping the tattoo was for another man, _any man_ , that wasn't him.

Seven years later, Pepper – she gave up telling him her name was Virginia a few months after he started calling Pepper – was proved wrong. Her tattoo was supposed to have her boss' name. And how did she find out? He was taken from her.

For three months she watched his name changing its color. Lilac, red, brown... she had seen them all. All the negative emotions that filled his body. And it made her cry every night. Pepper begged for him to be alright, to come back to her. Stane told her to forget about him, that he was dead, but she knew better. So much better. Tony was in fear and anger but was also determined. And that was what she held on to.

When Rhodey called her one night, telling her they found him, she cried for hours. She cried and laughed, nothing more. Tony was coming back. That night, she didn't sleep any more but awaited the morning so she could finally get ready to meet him at the airport.

* * *

  
Three months. For three months had he seen Pepper's name change the colors just like his own emotions changed during that time. He knew their meanings by heart, having read about them every day the first year he had _found_ her. But on the day he was coming back, he looked onto his wrist and frowned, the name didn't have one color, but looked like a rainbow. Now what was that supposed to mean? He had no idea, and he couldn't ask for advice either. He had to find out on his own.

The plane landed and Tony finally set his feet back on the familiar ground. Eyes focused on the beautiful redhead that walked straight towards him, he the red in her eyes and the dried tears on her cheeks.

"Your eyes are red. Tears for you long lost boss?"

"Tears of joy. I hate job hunting."

There was a small laugh in her voice and she knew he heard it. It made him smile and he looked her up and down, wanting to take in all of her. And that was when his eyes caught sight of the neat writing on her wrist. _Anthony_ , in the color of pink.

Pepper had always been so careful to always keep her wrist covered, which he only noticed now, could it be that this had been the reason. That he was her soulmate and she didn't want him to see?

He didn't mention it, wanted to wait until they were alone. Which, to his excitement, were minutes later when they were seated in the car.

For a moment, neither of them said a word, which wasn't an uncomfortable silence, until he chose to move his hand to pull up the sleeve of his jacket. Pepper, confused about this action, looked down at it and gasped. He had her name and it was shown in all the colors of the rainbow.

Their eyes met and Pepper couldn't help but cry some more while starting to laugh. Tony smiled that lovely smile she fell in love with years ago. And Tony reached out, taking her hand in his as a promise.

They were soulmates, meant to be, and he'd be damned if he wouldn't make sure to keep it that way.


	2. Pepperony Week 2017

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day Six of Pepperony Week: AU. Continuation of my soulmate au from last year’s Pepperony Week. Following the events of Iron Man 2. Soulmates are a complicated thing to deal with. (please note that the focus of the story are the colors and emotions rathe than the content.)  
> I'll be honest, I don't like how this turned out but I hope you can enjoy it anyway.

Having your boss as your soulmate wasn’t the easiest thing. They didn’t talk about it, neither of them was sure _what_ they actually were. Of course they knew they were each other’s soulmate, but what good could it be when you couldn’t act upon it? So much was going on, and they would never hear the end of it once press found out. So they continued to keep it a secret and never mentioned it again.

Neither of them mentioned it, but both of them checked their tattoos more than once a day. As they did months ago, they changed their colors a lot, maybe even more than before.

It was time for Tony to jump out of the plane, Pepper couldn’t stop herself from teasing him a little and kiss his faceplate before throwing it out. If he had been able to check his wrist, he surely would have seen it in a mixture of blue and pink.

On her way back home, sitting in the plane, she constantly checked his name; first, to make sure that he landed safely and afterwards to see that he was alright. Pepper could only imagine what was going on at the Expo but considering his name was shown in a light blue everything had to be alright; ~~she feared what would happen once the name showed no color but remained black~~.

It was when his name turned white that she knew something was wrong. “Why would Tony be frustrated?” she wondered out loud, running her fingers over his name before putting her watch back on to cover it. They definitely needed to talk about it later.

* * *

Things with Tony had never been easy. There was always she needed to take care of before she could actually confront him with anything else. However, ending up in court because of his suit was a different matter. Tony was being himself, completely inappropriate but Pepper had to admit that he was right with what he said. He briefly checked his tattoo when Senator Stern was talking to him. It was a risky situation to check it, but he just needed to know what Pepper was thinking.

_Tension, annoyance_ … brilliant. That was something he needed to make up to her. It wasn’t as if he liked causing so much trouble for Pepper, but somehow, he always kept doing it.

She had seen him check his wrist, pretty much like she did all the time. The watch on her wrist hid the name well enough but she was still able to see the colors. Purple and white, great. It wasn’t very different from her own emotions. Still, she was sure her colors were even brighter, especially the white.

When she left her seat as she saw Coulson, hoping at least he could give her some confidence. Walking up to Tony, giving him a note, she had a few more things to say.

“Agent Coulson is here. I’ll go and talk to him. Don’t mess this up, Tony. Try to behave.”

“Coulson? Why’s he here?” Tony hadn’t expected to see him again anytime soon. “You know me, Pep. I’ll handle this.”

“That’s what I worry about.”

Touching her wrist, letting his fingers brush his name, he meant to tell her that everything would be fine.

But Pepper worried nonetheless. It was a legitimate feeling.

Touching her wrist, letting his fingers brush his name, he meant to tell her that everything would be fine.

But Pepper worried nonetheless. It was a legitimate feeling, considering this was Tony Stark.

A bit later that day, the hearing had been over for a couple of hours now, Pepper was back at home with a glass of wine. For one evening, she didn’t want to stress herself over anything; almost anything. There was time for it the next day.

Instead, she found herself staring at her tattoo that kept changing its color: white, grey, brown, white again, brown once more etc.

“What are you not telling me, Tony.” There was nothing she wanted to know more, but she feared she’d have to wait much longer to get an answer.

Meanwhile, Tony was down in his lab, dealing with his poisoning. What was he supposed to do? There wasn’t a thing he could do, nothing that could help him and it was just frustrating. Looking down at his tattoo, he wondered what worried Pepper. Had she been looking at his colors? Did she know what was wrong with him? Impossible. He had been so good at hiding it.

“I’ll figure this out, Pep. Somehow…”

* * *

“What got you so angry now, Potts?”

The bright red on his wrist had been hard to miss. Tony could actually think of various things that could have driven her crazy, but he simply failed to settle for the best one.

-short skip-

“It’s you. It’s always been you.” In so many more senses that just being CEO. He knew he was in love with her, he knew she was his One. Did she even know that?

“I don’t know what to say.”

Instead, he handed her the glass of champagne. A glimpse at his wrist told him that it had been enough of a distraction. She had questioned him but Tony wasn’t ready to talk about it, he couldn’t tell her what was really going on. Pepper was the best person the be the new CEO of Stark Industries, it came in as the perfect distraction and decision.

“You’re crazy, Tony.”

“You knew that before.”

“The press is going to be a pain to deal with.”

“You will manage it perfectly. As always.”

It was the end of that conversation and Pepper only gave him a bright smile. This was much more than she could ever ask for and though she knew she should be more than happy, her subconscious told her there was still more behind it than just her qualifications.

* * *

Natalie had been sent to handle the official papers for the promotion, and though Pepper had known beforehand that Tony wouldn’t keep himself from making a move on her, she wanted to get it done as soon as possible and didn’t ask for anyone else.

Tony had been staring at Natalie as soon as she entered the room with Pepper. A hint of jealousy ran through her body but Pepper knew better than to show it openly. Hopefully he wouldn’t look at his wrist.

“She’s going to cost us a lot of money, keep it to yourself,” she warned him once again. It wasn’t hard to tell that she didn’t like the way he looked at Natalie but Tony seemed to be oblivious to her mood. Even her name showed her jealousy more than clearly; a bright _green_.

“I want one.”

“No.”

What did he think who he was? Keeping up her hopes that maybe in the future something could happen between them but yet looking after other women so freely.

If only she had known that it was meant to be a playful attempt rather than serious attraction.

* * *

One problem followed another and Pepper wondered when things would finally settle down again. His name had changed its color over and over again, always hitting white at one point. She worried, a lot. What was going on with him, it was worse than usual. All she wanted was an honest answer but he never mentioned anything. She couldn’t force him to talk to her, but she could still hope.

Monaco was supposed to be nothing spectacular, but even this he seemed to ignore. As if the annoyance of seeing Christine again hadn’t been enough, he simply had to decide and drive the race himself.

She was furious.

The fact that Natalie wasn’t much of a help didn’t make it any better. She had told him not to hire her as new PA and yet he ignored her. What was she even supposed to do with that man?

Her anger soon changed into worry and fear when a stranger walked onto the road with his technology and attacked Tony. Getting Happy and the suit, she constantly checked her wrist to make sure Tony was as alright as possible; just anything that wasn’t _dead_. She couldn’t afford losing him.

Her fear for him to die was only lessened for a moment when that man actually attacked the car, causing her to scream. Everything that happened was a blur and Pepper wouldn’t have been able to recall it in detail; Happy actually had to tell her about it later.

The next day, on their flight back home, she couldn’t keep quiet anymore. She had tried to ignore it, telling herself he was just falling back into old habits and that’s it. But this wasn’t normal anymore. This was unlike everything she knew. Watching the news while he was gone, Pepper caressed his name on her wrist and occasionally looked down. _Stress, worry, confusion_ … she needed answer.

Looking at him with a soft smile, though worry in her eyes, she then had to ask him.

“What are you not telling me?”

He didn’t meet her gaze right away but instead looked down. Her name brown, grey, white, and just a tiny bit pink. He sighed.

“I don’t wanna go home. Why don’t we turn around, stay in Venice? The Cipriani, remember? It’s a good place to be healthy.”

He gave her his puppy eyes and it still wasn’t the answer she wanted to hear and it was exactly why she couldn’t agree. They had fond memories of Venice, but if he couldn’t even tell her what was wrong with him, how was she supposed to go there with him to make it better?

* * *

Back at home in her apartment, she still had no idea what was going on, but there were other things she needed to take care of. She didn’t have time to think about why his name was so grey, what was stressing him so much.

She was missing something and it was frustrating her. Pepper was used to knowing about everything that was going on but this was something she had no control over.

She absolutely hated it.

That night, she actually cried herself to sleep.

* * *

Pepper had actually planned something for his birthday, of course it would have to wait until after his big party, but it was something that she hoped would make him talk to her. Something that was long overdue and she hoped would be welcomed.

If only she had known earlier that she would never get to give it to him.

He was a mess. The last time she had seen him this drunk was long ago, before Afghanistan and she had no intention to watch him ruining himself. That was, until Rhodey came and things changed. They fought, after Pepper tried to talk some senses into him, and left the whole side of the house in a mess.

Natalie was no help, Pepper was so done with her. In that moment, she couldn’t have been any more angry or frustrated.

He had messed up this time, a lot. This would take him a lot to make up for it.

That night, Pepper didn’t check her tattoo, neither the following morning.

* * *

It took her two days to actually look at his name again, deciding it was about time she checked on him again. What she saw, however, surprised her. Hopeless? Why would he feel hopeless? For a moment, Pepper forgot her anger and focus on her worry again. Was she just as much of an emotional mess as he had been lately?

A couple of hours later, her anger having returned again as various people called her, the news making fun of her, Tony came into her office. He was the last person she had wanted to see in this moment, yet she had allowed him to stay.

She knew he was trying to tell her something but it didn’t become clear what it was. All she knew was that it was getting annoying and that she really couldn’t deal with it in this very moment. Checking the time to see how long he actually took to form sentences, she saw the colors of his name.

He was rueful, actually sorry, and as much as Pepper wanted to give in and forgive him right away, she couldn’t. Not this time. Tony needed to understand that he had to make up for his mistakes instead of simply apologizing; even though it was already a big step for him.

One look at his wrist told him he was messing up again.

 “Did you bring me strawberries.”

_Crap_.

“Did you know that there is only one thing in the world that I’m allergic to?”

He knew this was the end.

“I knew there was a connection between you and these things.”

And soon enough she threw him out of her office again.

* * *

Pepper continued to ignore her tattoo, not wanting to bother herself with it at the moment. Things were out of hands and she knew it but she had to do her best to keep control of everything.

That was until Stark Expo.

Seeing Tony in his suit was a surprise. What was he doing here?

-short skip-

“Oh my God, you really were dying?”

“When were you going to tell me?!”

“Was going to make you an omelet.”

“Are you okay now?”

“ _Hey, save it for the honeymoon._ ”

Now everything made sense. How could she have been so oblivious? She knew that man for over a decade and yet she hadn’t noticed that he was dying.

_He gave you the company to deal with_.

That impossible man.

-short skip-

“I quit, I’m done.”

“You’re what? Well, that’s a surprise, actually it’s not.”

“You’ve taken such a good care of me, you deserve something better.”

“Thank you, thank you for understanding.”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s talk clean-up.”

“I’ll handle the transition. It’ll be smooth.”

“Okay. What about the press? Because you only had the job for a week. That’s gonna seem…”

“Well, with you it’s like dog years. I mean, it’s like the Presidency.”

His kiss cut her off and she immediately found herself melting into him. For years she had wondered what it would be like to kiss Tony Stark.

As they parted again for the second time – after Rhodey had interrupted them so kindly – Pepper smiled at him, before looking down at her wrist. It had been a reflex but a soft laugh escaped her as she saw the color.

“You know, my favorite color has always been pink. I can assure you, my name has the same color.”

It was enough to make him lean down again and kiss her once more.  
Maybe this was their chance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> COLORS  
> Blue: enthusiatic, happiness, surprise, relaxation, peace  
> Pink: love, romance, emotional, sympathy  
> White: frustration, boredom, confusion  
> Grey: stress, anxious, uncomfortable  
> Brown: nervousness, restless, anticipation  
> Yellow: creative, thoughtful  
> Orange: eagerness, excitement  
> Red: energetic, anger, passion  
> Green: jealousy  
> Purple: sense of purpose, determination, genuine clarity

**Author's Note:**

> COLORS  
> Blue: enthusiatic, happiness, surprise, relaxation, peace  
> Pink: love, romance, emotional, sympathy  
> White: frustration, boredom, confusion  
> Grey: stress, anxious, uncomfortable  
> Brown: nervousness, restless, anticipation  
> Yellow: creative, thoughtful  
> Orange: eagerness, excitement  
> Red: energetic, anger, passion  
> Green: jealousy  
> Purple: sense of purpose, determination, genuine clarity


End file.
